Smokers

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT SMOKERS - PAGE 3

For years, smokers have been exhorted to take the initiative and quit - use a nicotine patch, chew nicotine gum, take a prescription medication that can help, call a help line, just say no. But a new study finds that stopping is seldom an individual decision. Smokers tend to quit in groups, the study finds, which means smoking cessation programs should work best if they focus on groups rather than individuals. It also means that people may help many more than just themselves by quitting - quitting can have a ripple effect prompting an entire social network to break the habit.

Death rates from lung cancer could be greatly reduced if smokers and ex-smokers routinely underwent CT scans of their lungs, doctors are reporting today.The scans use a new technique that is far more sensitive than conventional chest X-rays and can detect tumors when they are small enough to be cured.Now, routine chest X-rays and other screening tests for lung cancer are not recommended, even for smokers, because the tests cannot identify tumors early enough to save or even prolong patients' lives.

When millions of Americans abandoned smoking in the 1980s, many health experts and social scientists thought they had tobacco on the run. But in the '90s progress began to slow: From 1990 to 2003, according to federal figures, only 3 percent of Americans gave up their cigarettes. The slowdown prompted many experts to conclude that most of the smokers who could easily quit already had done so. What remained was a hard-core group of Americans who continued to puff away despite significant health risks and severe social stigma.

The public's applause over the calculated capitulation last week by the Liggett Group, one of the nation's largest cigarette makers, has overshadowed a sobering fact: Thousands of smokers who have pursued the company in court for years stand to receive little under a proposed legal settlement also announced last week.Liggett received wide publicity last week when it struck a deal to resolve claims by 22 state attorneys general. But less widely noticed was that the company and a group of plaintiffs' lawyers also won preliminary approval from a state court judge in Mobile, Ala., for a companion plan to settle all present and future suits by smokers, their survivors, cities, counties and insurers.

Smoking causes lung cancer. That much is known. But three new studies published today suggest that genes might play a role in why some longtime smokers get the deadly disease and others do not. The scientists say these common genetic variations might also make smokers more likely to become addicted to tobacco and to smoke more cigarettes. The findings, which several experts said mark the first time that a genetic variation has been linked to lung cancer, could lead to a greater understanding of how smoking and genes interact to cause the disease.

By Lyle Denniston and Lyle Denniston,Washington Bureau of The Sun | January 14, 1992

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court yesterday called up a case that it had been holding for the tie-breaking vote of new Justice Clarence Thomas -- a major case on smoking and lung cancer -- but a one-hour hearing yielded not a hint of how he felt.In fact, Justice Thomas was the only one of the nine justices who sat silent throughout the hearing. It was the second public airing by the court in recent months on the question of allowing smokers or their families to sue cigarette makers for injury or death resulting from smoking.

NEW YORK -- Dry martinis, thick steaks and fat cigars are proving that everything old can be cool again.Next up, that symbol of thoughtful repose, the pipe.Sales of pipes rose about 25 percent last year as men scouring smoke shops for the ultimate cigar are seeking a fresh thrill in briar, corncob and meerschaum."They're not going to choose cigarettes; that's not their style. They're not going to choose snuff; that's not neat enough. They're looking for something elegant," said Richard Carleton Hacker, author of "The Ultimate Pipe Book."

Gail Williams-Glasser used to cope with stress by smoking; when she stopped smoking 10 years ago, she stumbled onto a different kind of relief:"I'd get up and leave the room," she says. "I would go and walk up and down the steps."From indoor steps she moved to outdoor walks, and then began to jog, gradually extending her distance to 16 miles.In the process, she became an oddity -- an ex-smoker who did not gain weight.According to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, that's unusual.

By Lyle Denniston and Lyle Denniston,Washington Bureau of The Sun | October 22, 1991

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court, deeply split over the right of smokers or their families to sue tobacco companies for harm done by lung cancer, indicated yesterday that new Justice Clarence Thomas may have to cast the deciding vote in that dispute.After talking over in private a major case it heard two weeks ago, the court told lawyers they would have to argue it all over again in January.The justices issued that order and others in their last public session before Justice-designate Thomas joins the court.

Listen up, huffers and puffers.You know who you are. You're the ones standing outside in 20-degree weather to have a cigarette because your office has banned smoking.You're the ones who have tried everything to quit, and nothing works.On Thursday, you'll get another chance to kick the habit.The American Cancer Society is sponsoring its 16th annual Great American Smoke-out with a variety of activities to help smokers make it through the day without taking a puff.North Arundel Hospital is offering respiratory and blood pressure screenings, and the Cancer Society is setting up an information booth in the hospital lobby.